Monthly Update: September 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for September. In general markets lost a little bit, which is not really a big deal. Especially considering the big drop from last month. There is still a lot of volatility in the market. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

Indicator	As of 31-8	As of 30-9	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.661	3.570	-2,5%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	33.627	33.172	-1,4%
AEX GR	1.317	1.261	-4,2%
USD.EUR	0,8909	0,8953	0,5%
Portfolio value	€ 21.906	€ 21.351	-2,5%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Purchases

I deposited €600 and topped of my position in TGH. You can read about it here. After that I wrote a covered call option on my position in TGH.

Dividends received
Nine separate companies paid me dividends during this month.

• INTC: 63 shares @ $0.24 for a total of $15.12
• AFL: 28 shares @ $0.39 for a total of $10.92
• IBM: 7 shares @ $1.30 for a total of $9.10
• WMT: 20 shares @ $0.49 for a total of $9.80
• XOM: 17 shares @ $0.73 for a total of $12.41
• UNP: 15 shares @ $0.55 for a total of $8.25
• BBL: 28 shares @ $1.24 for a total of $34.72
• RDS: 97 shares @ $0.47 for a total of $45.59 (DRIP 1 share)
• UNA: 37 shares @ €0.30 for a total of €11.17

Total: around €124 after tax which is about 50% more than last year in September. It's the second time that I crossed the 100 euros per month threshold. That's looking good!

Dividend increases during this month
None

Yearly forward dividend
My 12-month forward dividend rate is now €1038, compared to €950 last month. I finally surpassed the€1000 dividend income per year milestone. My extra shares in TGH made the difference. Let's see how long it takes before I get to the next thousand milestone!

Seeking Alpha articles
I wrote one article for Seeking Alpha. It's called: Textainer: Dividend Seems Safe But Investors Need Courage and got some good reviews.

Writing Covered Calls On TGH Position To Earn Extra Income

A few days ago I wrote about my purchase of additional TGH shares. One of the reasons for my purchase was that I wanted to "experiment" a little bit with writing covered calls. This post will explain my reasoning and will show the calculations of expected values in different scenarios.

Total Return In The Industrial Gases Sector: Why Airgas Outperformed Praxair And Air Products And Chemicals

Just before the weekend another article of mine was published on Seeking Alpha. The topic of the article is total return in the industrial gases sector. Total return is based on different variables like revenue, margins, outstanding shares and valuation multiples. Insight into the breakdown of various contributors to total return provides an investor with knowledge about which components have been important and whether repeatability can be expected in the future. Fellow author Eli Inkrot has written at length about this topic, recently in a side-by-side comparison of Kroger (NYSE:KR), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT). As I have written about the industrial gases sector before, I was interested to see how this analysis worked out.

You can check it out here, it's called: Total Return In The Industrial Gases Sector: Why Airgas Outperformed Praxair And Air Products And Chemicals

Recent buy: TGH

Yesterday I purchased 57 shares of TGH for $16.20 per share. With this purchase I now have 100 shares of TGH. I plan to write covered calls against my position to generate extra income. I expect that the share price of TGH won't have any real upside in the short term due to low rental rates. The dividend however seems sustainable (see my article on Seeking Alpha). If the valuation multiple returns to the historical average in a few years, total return should more than offset the extra risk.

I'll get up another post in a few days about my possible option purchase.

Textainer: Dividend Seems Safe But Investors Need Courage

Textainer is facing difficult times. Rental rates are historically low and renewing long term leases at lower prices puts a dent in revenues. Textainer should be able to maintain their dividend, unless something dramatic and unforeseen happens. Read the rest of the article on Seeking Alpha!

Monthly Update: August 2015

It's that time of the month again! I guess last month wasn't kind to my portfolio but honestly I wasn't all that bothered. I was mostly frustrated by the fact that I did not have any real liquidity on hand to take advantage of some of the low stock prices. I kind of need to save a bit extra to fund my (possible) future home purchase (and consequently the costs of selling our current apartment).

After the big losses in earlier in June, followed by a small recovery in July, my portfolio really suffered this month. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

August 2015
Indicator	As of 31-7	As of 31-8	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.896	3.661	-6,0%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.848	33.627	-6,2%
AEX GR	1.472	1.317	-10,5%
USD.EUR	0,9082	0,8909	-1,9%
Portfolio value	€ 24.074	€ 21.906	-9,0%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Monthly Update: July 2015

It's that time of the month again! I am late because I just returned from my holiday. It's a nice feeling to be away for three weeks yet still get paid a few bucks for owning shares in some wonderful companies.

After the big losses in my portfolio last month, this month showed some black numbers again. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

July 2015
Indicator	As of 30-6	As of 31-7	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.816	3.896	+2,1%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.662	35.848	+0,5%
AEX GR	1.403	1.472	+4,9%
USD.EUR	0,9032	0,9082	+0,6%
Portfolio value	€ 23.631	€ 24.074	+1,9%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.